Saturday, March 3, 2012

Rocumentary will be revealing

After a long time in development, an
interesting documentary on curling airs on Sunday. Actually, it’s being called
a “rockumentary” which is a good handle. It’s a look behind the scenes at Team
Howard over the course of a year giving insight into what the team does off the
ice as well as on. The documentary covers the 2010-11 season including the loss in last year's Brier.

Howard’s team of Richard Hart (replaced this year
by Wayne Middaugh), Brent Laing and Craig Savill are one of the more close-knit
foursome on the circuit and that's part of the reason they've been so successful. They are also one of
the more progressive and open teams, (as evidenced by this clip), which
is why this program should be intriguing, revealing and probably hilarious at times. I've spent some off-the-record time with these guys over the years and they definitely like to have fun.

During the taping process, the team
was given a veto over what went in and as Howard pointed out in this story by Murray McCormick, they never used
it.

"If there was something really glaring
that we didn't want in there, he would take it out," Howard said.
"Truth be known, we didn't (remove anything). He put it in, we thought it
was fine and away we went. It's tough especially when you suffer a big loss and
the camera is in your face. Still, he has to capture that. It's hard and there
are the odd F-bombs. It's not in the clip, but it is reality and it's what we
do."

The show airs Sunday evening on TSN and again during the Brier.

***

Saskatchewan curlers have had success on the women’s side of
things but they’ve come up short when it comes to the men’s game. Darrell
Davis, who will handle coverage for the Globe this year, has an interestinglook at the perennial hopes of the Green Province team and the pressures that
come from representing a curling-mad region.

He quotes Eugene Hritzuk as saying that the Scott Manners
team will need to step it up if they hope to end the drought that’s existed
since 1980.

“I think they’ve worked harder on their game than
any other team in Saskatchewan,” Hritzuk said about Manners and his teammates.
“But the curling will be at a different level at the Brier than what we saw at
the provincials. The precision with which they curled in Assiniboia is not the
precision they’ll need to make the playoffs at the Brier. I’m not saying they
won’t make the playoffs, I’m just saying they have to bring it up a notch."

***

Can’t have a Brier without a Patch and this year, the beer is even local. Yup, Sasky beer in the Patch, but don’t worry, it’s not green.

***

Did you know there’s a Brier for clergymen? Yup, it’s called
the Friar’s Brier. Here’s the story.

***

Alberta’s Amy Nixon has confirmed that she’s moving on to
form her own squad, parting ways with Shannon Kleibrink, according to this story from Al Cameron.

“It’s real hard; I feel like I’ve kind of jumped off a cliff
and I’m not sure how I’m going to land. But I do think it’s the right time to
blaze my own path and try something new.”

Nixon said much of the reason for her decision was the fact
that she couldn’t commit to the arduous schedule needed to make it to the 2014
Olympics, a goal for the Kleibrink team. Her new team – which has yet to be
formed – will likely play around Alberta next year.